Use My Decaying Body, Lord Jesus!

Our human bodies tend to get weather-beaten. We get sick from everything from food poisoning to air pollution. We break our bones and we get cancer. We have lung diseases and acne scaring our faces. Our fingers, toes and limbs get chopped off in non-heroic action. We walk around ill-proportioned and allergic to entire seasons. Our noses run and embarrassing warts grow on our hands and feet. We jump and when we land we sprain our ankles or distort our knees. And on top of all that, our bodies begin to age. Laugh lines turn into wrinkles, that old broken bone starts to ache again (and it must be contagious, because the pain spread all the way to the other side!) and our eyes won’t improve even with the help of glasses and surgery. And sometimes, our pain is self inflicted – we are overweight because of overeating. We’re hobbling around on one foot with the other in a cast because of a stupid trick on a bike. We cry about too much acne when we could’ve just said no to all that extra coffee. What can we say? We’re human and our bodies are decaying.

I was sitting in the car the other day and a funny but reassuring thought came to me; God uses us even though we’re falling apart all over the place! We’re short, fat, tall, skinny – and decaying, and God still works in our hearts and makes us into Giant Warriors for his Kingdom. Little Old me and you.

I was whining inside the other day because I didn’t think I was pretty enough or very smart. And then who popped into my head, of all people? Gladys Aylward. Gladys wasn’t smart enough for the missionary board to send out. The soldiers that chased her weren’t chasing her because they thought she was beautiful! But boy did God make Gladys a Princess of Hope for the Chinese people!